Patriotism Through Education Series 
No. I 

Knowledge By the People True Basis 
of National Security 

Address by 

S. STANWOOD MENKEN 

President of the National Security League 

at 

SPEAKERS' TRAINING CAMP FOR EDUCATION 

IN PATRIOTIC SERVICE 

and 

CONFERENCE OF ORGANIZATIONS ENGAGED IN 

PATRIOTIC EDUCATION 

Chautauqua, N. Y., July 2, 1917. 




lATIONAL 
SECURITY 
'LEAGUE;" 



Issued by 

NATIONAL SECURITY LEAGUE. 

19 WEST 44th STREET 

NEW YORK CITY 



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IT is a privilege to greet you who come as delegates from all 
sections of the union to aid in plans for its safety. This is a time 
for hard thinking and valiant deeds. To do and think for the 
country is not, however, sufficient in this world crisis, unless the 
thought is followed by action insuring victory. 

In a democracy, no great war can be successfully waged with- 
out continued and intelligent popular approval. The experience 
of our Allies has demonstrated that the orator is a factor in gain- 
ing that support and ranks with the fighter and producer in shop 
and field as an element in the conduct of the war. 

In truth, the fate of the nation depends upon public opinion 
of rights defined by the press, and on the forum. In England, the 
Government has assumed direction of both classes of publicity, and 
it is largely because of this that the British people are strong and 
single of purpose. 

Today, our people hunger for knowledge of America's needs. 
They want to know the intimate facts about the conflict and all 
its related problems. Those who come to learn of these things 
constitute no commonplace audience ; they are fellow citizens seek- 
ing information, so that they may express their patriotism in the 
most certain and practical manner for their country's good. 

To assure results worthy of such gatherings, the speaker must 
have knowledge of his subject matter and a message ringing true 
to the aspirations of the people and the obligations of the nation. 

Mastery of military needs as now developed covers a vast field 
of inquiry. It is said that it takes the industry of fourteen people 
to support a single soldier, and of eighty people to maintain a 
single sailor in the fighting ranks. We expect to put in the field 
2,000,000 soldiers and have on the seas 100,000 sailors. This means 
that every human activity and all industrial resources in this 
country must be applied to win the war. 

Agriculture affords the foundation to maintain the army; 
mechanical production of the instruments of war is the means 



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of military initiative; the men in the battle line apply the product 
of the farmer, the machinist and the organizer. 



CREATE A WAR COUNCIL 

To obtain efficient marshalling of these varied forces, it is 
essential that they be controlled by a central body with unlimited 
authority. The war should be conducted by a War Council, ap- 
pointed by the President, with functions of direction superior 4o 
the Cabinet, whose Secretaries should be' executives, carrying out 
the plans of the higher authority. This suggestion me§ns a revo- 
lution in the methods of American life. 

To bring to the people the consciousness of this fact and the 
■jart the individual must play in it is in itself a mission worthy 
)f any body of citizens. 

Related to this work must be the fundamental one of awaken- 
ii'g the people to the reasons for the war, as well as of its conduct. 
At the present I am prepared to submit that: 



The people of the United States are in main sound asleep 
and ignorant of both the problems and the grave dangers that 
confront them ; 

That Germany is designedly avoiding doing anything that 
will awaken them; that its purpose is to first destroy our 
Allies and then deal with us single-handed; 

That conditions in Congress, especially as evidenced by 
the failure to press all of the legislation wisely demanded by 
our President, is due, not so much to ignorance in the halls of 
legislation, as to the reflex that the Congressmen obtain from 
the views of their constituents at home. 

That we should spread through the length and breadth 
of the land the last public utterance of that great American, 



the late Honorary President of the National Security League, 
the Hon. Joseph H. Choate, who said, speaking of Congress, "For 
God^s Sake Hurry Up" ! 

This nation will give doubly for freedom if it gives quickly. 

I further submit that if the American people understood 
that nothing in the whole world counts for anything except 
winning the war quickly for peace and democracy, they would 
be willing to give unmeasured support to the plans of Mr. 
Wilson, who has nobly voiced America's right policy, and they 
would recognize that he is trying to do a great and broad 
work, and they would demand a speeding up of the entire 
war programme in no uncertain manner. Then the voice of the 
people would be the voice of Congress. 

The nation must be aroused to the fact that this is our war, 
not England's war, France's war, or Italy's; that unless we fight 
when we have Allies we will fight alone; that if our Allies are 
defeated we will be burdened by fear and enshackled by militarism 
for all time to come, and that the glory, freedom and happiness of 
all our people will be dimmed and perhaps darkened for many 
generations. 



FIGHTING FOR AN IDEAL 

Our work for America is to see that our children enjoy all 
the liberty, opportunity and happiness you and I have known. This 
is inconceivable with Germany victor. 

Above all, however, rises the impersonal view, and that is 
that we believe in democracy. We would rather die than be sub- 
jects of autocracy. America to us is an idea and an ideal, and 
for these we are ready to fight. 

Do the American people understand these things? They are 
told we must "make Democracy safe". I submit that the philosophy 
behind this lofty sentiment passes over their heads. We who speak 



must explain all it means ; we must give them the direct personal, 
selfish relation of the individual to the struggle. They must be 
told that it effects the lives of men, the honor of women, the educa- 
tion of youths ; the exercise of free speech and of religious views ; 
the right to labor and enjoy the usufruct thereof; to have and to 
hold property exempt from burdensome taxation ; and above all, the 
right to those liberties created by aspiring men and women of all 
ages embodied in the Magna Chartas, Bills of Rights and Constitu- 
tions which are the foundation of freedom throughout the world, 
and represent the progress of all mankind through all civilization. 
They must feel within their very souls that it is this civilization 
that we and they are fighting for, and if we tell them this with 
vision, we will then, and only then, arouse the Americans to battle 
as they did in 1776 and 1861. 

To do this work and do it well is a matter that will require 
an infinite amount of preparation and of care. We must 
initiate a movement of mental preparedness of the people. I hope 
that under the leadership of your speakers, who cover so many 
subjects, that you will be able to analyze into component elements 
the matters which should be brought home to the average audi- 
ence, and then prepare syllabi of lectures and discuss the best 
method of delivering them. 



Primarily, I would suggest the importance of studying the 
origin and development of efficiency in countries like Germany and 
Japan, in both of which all of the resources of the nation, human 
and physical, are applied for the development of the state power. 
The extent to which the state controls the individual has always 
been emphasized to my mind by the story of one of the Branch 
Chairmen of the Security League, the dearly beloved Hamilton W. 
Mabie. He told of his conversation with a Japanese Admiral 
during which he remarked to the Admiral his surprise that 
a Japanese sailor would serve for a few cents a month, whereupon 
the Admiral said, '*A Japanese soldier or sailor would scorn to 
take pay for service to his Emperor; the 32c a month is merely 
the measure of his tobacco allowance." This marks the quality 
of the patriotkm of one of our allies. 



We in America do not wish for one instant to destroy indi- 
vidual initiative or enthrone KULTUR, but we do want to have 
the people understand the organization of nations which are com- 
peting with them, in war or in peace. 

For Americans, it would seem as if the solution in view, of the 
intelligence and inherent patriotism of our people, is to merely 
plant the seed of knowledge and rely upon their bringing about 
the results which will enable them to gather the flower of efficiency. 
If the American people understand and correctly value the im- 
port of good government, scientific administration, conservation of 
resources, and life, with elimination of all waste, we will obtain 
the necessary amount of efficiency of our own direct kind to make 
a success of democracy. 



DEMOCRACY IN BALANCE 

Democracy hangs in the balance, waiting to prove its right 
to existence — merely because of the neglect of the intelligent people 
in this country to apply the same methods of organization to the 
affairs of the nation, that they have so successfully directed to 
their private enterprises. It is up to these men, captains of industry, 
and of labor, in all parts of the country to cease slacking, for the 
nation needs them now to perform public duties, and we must 
tell them to work and think for their nation. If they do not safe- 
guard America, America will no longer safeguard them or theirs. 
In connection with this preachment, however, we should point out 
the different fields of service they can be active in. If we find the 
disease, we should suggest the remedy. 

We must also understand our true history and thus make 
clearer the solution of many problems of national life. A few cold 
facts generally omitted by our teachers as to the history of our 
country, coupled with suggestion of the cost of carelessness, waste, 
and political malfeasance and failure to meet the call of citizenship, 
will, if properly presented, havt a sobering: effect, even on the 
mind of the Jingo who believci Uncle Sam can lick the world. 



Our speakers, of course, must define, not only the reasons 
for the war, but how modern wars are fought; they must be able 
to explain why it is the fourteen men or the eighty men are re- 
quired to support the one man at the front, on land or sea; they 
must be able to explain the relation of industry and the production 
of supplies to ability to fight, and have some knowledge of the 
problems of taxation ; they should explain also that honest local and 
state governments will reduce taxation and enable the people to 
give more towards the Federal government's effort to maintain 
itself and the Allies, as will common sense, personal economy and 
elimination of unessentials. The work and plans of Mr. Hoover 
should be detailed so that we will always have in mind the fact 
that saving is nearly as good as raising — and that a nation may 
be enriched because of what its people can do without. 



We should emphasize the proper method of selecting those who 
are to constitute the armed forces of the country. In a democracy, 
a people's army must defend the people and there is but one way 
of obtaining an army that is fair to all — that is, Universal Oblig- 
atory Military Training and Service. Those who have studied this 
subject agree we will come to this, and we must bring to the people 
a realizing sense of the fact that Universal Obligatory Service, or 
Conscription, is a national necessity, for it provides the only 
method of raising a sufficient force to keep the shores of America 
free from the aggressor in a world of war. America will never 
again disregard Washington's advice by allowing its weakness 
to invite insult, the repulse of which has brought this armed con- 
flict. There is only one way to be strong — and that is to be fully 
prepared. Furthermore, in explaining Conscription, we must make 
our audiences understand that the men who give the six or seven 
months to the country in learning how to defend it, will receive 
more than they give, because of the fact that the training is an 
endowment of health, of discipline and of schooling in sympathetic 
understanding of their fellow men, of inestimable benefit to them 
throughout life. 



NO CLASS DISTINCTION 



This brings me to one other point that too much stress can- 
not be laid upon. Our speakers should have the correct viewpoint 
of their audiences. They must be men and women who feel that 
there can be no class distinction between Americans; who are for 
America First. All good Americans must be alike to them, whether 
they be rich or poor, Easterners or Westerners, Northerners or 
Southerners, white or black, and the appeal of our speakers ought 
to be so inherently catholic in its democracy as to strike a responsive 
cord in the breast of every right-feeling American. There has been 
too much talk of masses and classes in connection with this war. 
Neither rich nor poor have any distinctive monopoly of patriotism. 



In this work, we shall have to deal with certain other tendencies 
that are of vast import to the country. I will refer to one in par- 
ticular, and that is the trend which has arisen toward the social- 
ization of resources and industry. The government is, of neces- 
sity, bound to take control of many of our great industries, and 
we will soon have the practical application of many doctrines of 
socialism which we never expected to find in operation in this 
country. We must consider how far this trend is to be en- 
couraged and what the limitations should be ; we should measure 
the capacity and willingness of the people to govern, when govern- 
ment becomes so complex and varied in its functions, and weigh 
the conditions which will exist when the war ceases. In fact, it 
may well be said that in time of war we must prepare for peace. 
This preparation is a difficult and a serious work. In fact, the prob- 
lems that confront the people are so many and grave that except 
for our abiding faith in their native intelligence and in their deep- 
seated fervor for the maintenance of our institutions, we might well 
doubt the outcome. The matters for solution by the people of this 
country are so complex that the greatest work that we can ac- 
complish at the present time is to prepare the people by giving 
them information to solve their difficulties. These difficulties or 
any other are personal to every man, and as the war progresses 
this will be realized by no uncertain pressure. You will have 



receptive audiences, anxious to learn and ready to carry forward 
national upbuilding in all its phases. 

It is to this labor that we are to dedicate ourselves and I hope 
that you will enter upon it with a feeling that you have a most 
solemn and holy duty to accomplish, and that your deliberations 
will be with but one purpose and that is SERVICE, and that 
throughout you will recognize the fact that the bringing of knowl- 
edge to the people means NATIONAL SECURITY. 



PERIPATETIC UNIVERSITY 



If you accept this viewpoint, you will work to provide a nation- 
wide organization of our speakers' campaign. It is a simple matter, 
if you have the enthusiasm, to create a peripatetic university, a 
patriotic Chautauqua, which will, with the aid of hundreds of cap- 
able lecturers, spread the gospel which will make democracy 
efficient and triumphant. 

In this undertaking, the Federal Government will cooperate, as 
will most educational bodies and departments. It is, however, time 
that recognition is given to the true part of education and the 
educator in national life. If knowledge is national security, let us 
recognize the dignity of education and the educator, and the ex- 
tent to which by coordinated effort the great field of instruction 
should be extended on practical lines to create a greater America, 
and help all mankind. 

We have a place in the Cabinet for a Secretary of Agriculture, 
for Postal Affairs, for Commerce — let us have a Secretary of Edu- 
cation. The opportunity for awakening new thought and creat- 
ing new fields of activity on the part of the people should make 
this the most important position in the gift of the President. 

We should appoint a Committee to urge Congress to carry 
olan into effect. 



this plan into effect 



In the meantime, we must spread the tmth in whatever 
way we can to help the country — under the slogan "Awake 
and Safeguard America!** — and thus afford the guarantee to our 
President and his co-workers at Washington, high and low, and 
to our goldiers on the field and our sailors on the sea, that in 
their battle for our liberties, they have behind them the full strength 
of the industry, organization and spiritualism of an united people 

S. STANWOOD MENKEN. 



THE NATIONAL SECURITY LEAGUE 



Is a non-political, non-partisan league of American men and women who 
earnestly working to secure adequate national defense from Congress. THl 
LEAGUE IS ALSO DOING AN EFFECTIVE WORK PROMOTING PATRIOTIC 
EDUCATION AND UNIVERSAL MIUTARY TRAINING AND SERVICE. 

Honorary President — Elihu Root, New York. 
[NOTK. — Joseph H. Choate was Honorary President from date of organization until his deathl 
May 14, 1917.] 

Honorary Vice-President — ^Alton B. Parker, New York. 

President — S. Stanwood Menken, New York. 

Vice-Presidents — George Wharton Pepper, Philadelphia. 
George von L. Meyer, Boston. 
Willet M. Spooner, Milwaukee. 
Luke E. Wright, Memphis. 
Frederic L. Huidekoper, Washington. 
Franklin Q. Brown, New York. 

Secretary — Herbert Barry, New York. 

Treasurer — Edward H. Clark, New York. 

Chairman, Board of Directors — Charles E. Lydecker, New York. 

Chairman, Finance Committee— Alexanh^s. J. Hemphill, New York. 

Executive Secretary — Henry L. West, New York. 

The National Security League is supportj 
by small contributions of the public. It is 
endowed and finds that ihe work of raising sui 
f icient funds for the distribution of its literatun 
is a matter of most serious difficulty. 

All those who believe in forwarding its worl 
are earnestly urged to support it and aid in seci 
ing new members. 



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